Benefits of being bilingual

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Benefits of being bilingual

The lesson looks at the benefits of being bilingual or multilingual, and a few myths, hoping to encourage students to value the languages they speak.

Author:

Rachael Roberts

This lesson was devised to celebrate International Mother Language Day on 21 February, which exists to promote awareness of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. However, it can be used at any time of the year.

The lesson begins with a few statements about bilingualism. The students decide if these are true or false and then read a text to check their ideas. Having discussed the topic of the text, the students move on to look at impersonal report structures. These are very common in essays, articles and more academic-type writing, and it is useful for students at this level to be aware of them and to be able to produce them accurately.

After some practice with these structures, the lesson ends with a more light-hearted and personalised practice activity.

Aims:

To raise awareness of the benefits of speaking more than one language

To enable students to recognise and use impersonal report structures

To provide students with practice in making predictions and reading to confirm them

Age/level:

Adults or older teenagers with CEF level B2 and above

Time:

45–60 minutes

Materials:

The lesson and student worksheet (3 pages) can be downloaded in PDF format below